I'm the last to defend the state, but this outcome works in their favor, since it appears on the surface that the drastic reduction of money didn't have a negative impact on student performance (at the same time, it doesn't necessarily indicate that it had a positive impact). If the results improved with massive spending cuts, it only encourages the state to cut further. The charter school debate is for another day, however.

While many, especially these days, consider $175,000 a large annual salary (I do), there are several things to consider when you propose a knee-jerk pay reduction. One, if the residents of Parsippany want to pay their super $225,000 or whatever, who is the state to tell them not to do that? I thought the whole Christie mantra was to get state government out of local affairs. This is clearly a local matter, which should be decided by Parsippany residents, not Trenton figureheads. Two, setting an arbitrary, un-scientific amount for districts will assure that the quality of the people who run these districts will certainly deteriorate (quite a few principals or asst. supers make at least the cap amount, so what's the incentive to take a superintendent role?). Three, the full benefits will not be full when the reform is actually implemented. Four, if the super is overpaid as the Governor has mentioned (ad nauseam), then it's not so much the super is overpaid, but rather, you could make the argument that the Governor himself is underpaid. After all, Seitz is in charge of a 55,000-person school district, and Christie is in charge of a 8.8M-person state.

Tonight will be the first of three wins all season. Enjoy it while it lasts. And Kirk Herbstreit picked Rutgers as his Big East sleeper? I have a lot of respect for Herbstreit, but a pick like that is a bit extreme.

Yes! Someone else who thinks 2 wins is a realistic expectation! By the way, the opening game is North Carolina Central, an FCS-team who just moved up to the FCS from D-II a few years (and last year went 3-8). Remember, against Norfolk State it was 3-0 at halftime and we lost to Tulane. And sorry, for all the issues UNC has, that is still a loaded team that is capable of 8 or 9 wins.

Rutgers will be lucky to match last year's win total. When you lose to Tulane at home (like we did last year), you cannot reasonably expect to be in the mix for anything other than another fiasco. My prediction: 2, maybe 3 wins. And that's overall, not in the Big East. They'll win diddly squat in conference play. They'll eke out a win against NC Central to open up and they'll beat Ohio and/or Army, and that's it. Forget UNC (despite their problems there, the team is still loaded) or Navy; those are definitely losses. It's not as though the conference is that stacked (the Big East is not very good), it's just that every other team has improved far more than we have.